Teesta Setalvad

Teesta Setalvad is a journalist and educationist. She is granddaughter of India's first Attorney General M. C. Setalvad^[1]^[2]^[3]

1 Personal life
2 Political views and affiliations
3 Activism
4 Allegations of judicial miscounduct
5 Controversy over false cases
6 Affiliations
7 Awards
8 References
9 External links

Personal life

She graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Bombay University in 1983 and started work as a journalist.^[4] She reported for the Mumbai editions of The Daily (India) and The Indian Express newspapers, and then for Business India magazine. Appalled by the communal violence during the Bombay Riots, she, along with activist husband Javed Anand, quit full-time journalism in 1993 to start a monthly magazine Communalism Combat.^[5]

Teesta is an ethnic Gujarati and the daughter of Atul Setalvad, a Mumbai based lawyer, and Sita Setalvad, a rural crafts exponent. She and husband Javed have two children, Tamara and Jibran.^[6]

In 2007, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her role in "Public Affairs in Maharashatra".^[7]

Despite being a Muslim she hides her identity as Teesta Javed under a Hindu name Teesta Setelvad.

Political views and affiliations

Teesta has been described as 'pro-left',^[8] and she and husband Javed Anand have described themselves as "very proud of being part of the Left tradition". She has, however, criticised the Communist party government in West Bengal for the police firing that killed civilians in Nandigram village on March 14 2007, by calling the tragedy "unanticipated, unjustified and unfortunate".^[2]
Teesta and Javed's publication, Communalism Combat, requested and received funds from the Congress Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India and ten individuals to run advertisements in national dailies attacking the Sangh Parivar, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, before the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.^[9] One of these advertisements was endorsed by 13 women's NGOs;^[9] the total budget for this campaign was 15 million rupees. They have, however, elsewhere criticised the Congress Party for issues arising from the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots and the Srikrishna Commission report.^[10]
Teesta has been felicitated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for her work done on the Best Bakery case.^[11]

Activism

Teesta's magazine Communalism Combat claims to foster communal harmony, and attack entities allegedly propounding communal violence.

Teesta testified at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom on June 10, 2002 against the BJP led Gujarat government's role in the post-Godhra communal violence.^[12]

In 1997, Teesta started work on a project, Khoj (Quest), which aims to rewrite sections of Indian school History and Social Studies textbooks to remove "anti-minority prejudices".^[13]

She claims to be a staunch feminist, campaigns for rights and privileges of Dalits, Muslims and women.^[4]

Allegations of judicial miscounduct

In November 2004, Setalvad was accused of pressuring Zaheera Sheikh, the key witness in the Best Bakery case, to make certain statements, leading to the unprecedented transferral of the case outside Gujarat. In August 2005, a Supreme Court of India committee absolved her of the charges of inducement levelled against her by Zaheera.

Controversy over false cases

Manipulation of evidence

Teesta Setalvad's former aide Rais Khan Pathan has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court alleging manipulation of evidence, which were in the form of statements of witnesses, by her in five sensitive post-Godhra riot cases.[4]

Imaginary incidents by Teesta

In April 2009, the Times of India ran a story claiming that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) setup by the Supreme Court of India to investigate and expedite the Gujarat riot cases had submitted before the Court that Teesta Setalvad had cooked up cases of violence to spice up the incidents. The SIT which is headed by former CBI director, R K Raghavan has said that false witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents by Teesta Setalvad and other NGOs.^[14] The SIT charged her of “cooking up macabre tales of killings”.^[15]

The court was told that 22 witnesses, who had submitted identical affidavits before various courts relating to riot incidents, were questioned by SIT and it was found that the witnesses had not actually witnessed the incidents and they were tutored and the affidavits were handed over to them by Setalvad.^[15]

The report which was brought to the notice of the bench consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, noted that the much publicised case of a pregnant Muslim woman Kausar Banu being gangraped by a mob and foetus being removed with sharp weapons, was also fabricated, and false.^[14]^[16]

A day later, the Times of India published a letter from Citizens for Justice and Peace claiming that the report in question was not SIT report but a report by the Gujarat Government.^[17] The author of the Times article responded saying "My report was based on the SIT report and not any document circulated by the Gujarat government, as suggested by CJP. Whether any section of the media has the report or not is irrelevant as TOI has access to the report.^[18]

Dilip D'Souza has attempted to pick loopholes in the initial story carried by "Times of India". D'Souza notes that in his rebuttal to the letter by Citizens for Justice and Peace, the reporter does not even refer to the three “widely publicised” incidents he originally claimed the SIT had found “no truth” in.^[19]

R.K.Raghavan, the chairman of the SIT criticised the report leakage, saying, "The alleged reported leaks appear to be inspired by dubious motives. I cannot confirm such claims. The act is highly condemnable". However, he refused to deny or confirm the report itself.^[20] The Supreme Court itself condemned the leaking of the SIT report as a 'betrayal of trust' but did not deny the report itself.^[21]

The CBI director, who heads the SIT noted that "many incidents were cooked up, false witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents, and false charges levelled against the then Ahmedabad police chief P C Pandey".^[22]

Reception

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi and the former member of National Knowledge Commission has criticized Teesta Setalvad, saying that if the charges against her were true then she had done the cause of justice irreparable harm. He observed that her actions, as described, will undermine the capability of civil society to have any imprimatur of impartiality in investigating riot cases.^[23] However, subsequently Mehta backtracked on his earlier article, stating that, "My intention was not to expose Teesta. I have no competence and desire to do so. I was just stuck by the fact that this seemed to be an important story, carried by a "credible" newspaper, the Economic Times, followed by TOI and a slightly different version by IBN."^[24] Others have said that her grandstanding has undermined the foundations of the beliefs of the Indian republic^[25]

Now itturns out that the man friday of teesta Javed has filed affidavits in the Supreme Court exposing the shenangians of Teesta Javed. See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Teesta-doctored-evidence-Ex-aide-to-SC/articleshow/10936983.cms#write

Affiliations

Co-editor of Communalism Combat magazine (along with husband Javed Anand).
Teesta's husband Javed Anand runs Sabrang Communications which claims itself as fighting for human rights. Teesta is the official spokesperson of this organization.
Teesta heads the Mumbai based NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice(CPJ), of which her father is also a member. Many prominent Mumbai based celebrities are supporters of this NGO.^[26]
Founder of the Women and Media Committee.^[27] The group seeks to bring together working women journalists to raise job-related concerns and awareness of gender-sensitivity in writing and reporting on issues concerning women.
Founder of Journalists Against Communalism.^[27]
Apart from the journalistic tasks Teesta Setalvad leads the project “Khoj: Education for A pluralistic India”.^[28]
Teesta is General Secretary of People's Union for Human Rights” (PUHR).^[28]
Member of the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy.^[28]

Awards

Other than the 2007 Padma Shri, Teesta Setalvad received the following awards:

2004 M.A.Thomas National Human Rights Award from the Vigil India Movement.
Parliamentarians for Global Action 'Defender of Democracy' award,^[29] jointly with Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.^[30]
the Nani A Palkhivala Award 2006.^[31]
The Nuernberg Human Rights Award 2003.^[32]
PUCL Journalism for human Rights Award 1993.^[1]
Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding Woman journalist 1993.^[1]
Maharana Mewar Foundation's Hakim Khan Sur Award (jointly with Javed Anand) in 1999.^[1]
Human Rights Award OF the Dalit liberation Education Trust in 2000.^[1]
Pax Christi internationally Peace Award (jointly with Australian artist Eddi Kneebone).^[1]
Rajiv Gandhi Award (jointly with Harsh Mander) for highlighting and helping the victims of violence in February - July 2002 in Gujarat, India.^[1]